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Free land and tax dollars subsidize city agriculture

You’re likely to see this summer some vegetable and fruit farms in downtown Vancouver between skyscrapers and Rogers Arena, instead of the fertile Fraser Valley.

Has agricultural technology reached a point at which it’s possible for Vancouver to self-produce a large supply of its food? Mayor Gregor Robertson would have you think so through his support for urban agriculture, no matter how detached such farming is from reality.

Leading the biggest urban agriculture development is Sole Food, with its flagship two-acre farm comprising temporary planter boxes, located at Concord Pacific Place beside Rogers Arena and BC Place and leased by Concord Developments. With support from the city, Sole Food also has a new one-acre development purported to be the “largest urban orchard in North America,” at the southeast corner of Main Street and Terminal Avenue. In neighbouring North Vancouver is Edible Garden Project’s half-acre Loutet Farm, off the Upper Levels Highway at Loutet Park.

These large-scale urban developments qualify as farms based on their size and seasonal yield. All three have garnered significant praise for their esthetic, community development, and most important for their commitment to sustainability.

Recognizing this, the City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussato awarded Edible Garden Project with the 2012 Sustainable City Award, while in 2012 Sole Food won the Real Estate Foundation’s Land Award and the Canadian Urban Institute’s Brownie Award.

People have been spurred by the urban agricultural community and city mayors to “grow food, not lawn” and wield their spade. While definitely not an eyesore, these urban farms are neither profitable nor sustainable. Sole Food’s mission is not to run a successful business but “to empower individuals with limited resources by providing jobs, agricultural training and inclusion in a supportive community of farmers and food lovers.”

How does sustainability play into this? The mayor is so keen to pursue his Greenest City initiative that operating under the guise of sustainability has become a social license instead of an objective. Unfortunately the rhetoric doesn’t match reality, and the test of sustainability regarding opportunity cost, income, taxes and incentives is never passed.

The failure is self-evident with a new Indiegogo campaign launched by Sole Food to raise $100,000 for “pay what you can” retail shops selling its produce around the city. Without profit, neither urban farms nor household gardens can be sustainable, and the public needs to know this instead of being presented with an idyllic picture of urban agriculture benefiting everyone. Sole Food and Edible Garden Project produce food at a loss year after year, yet are praised for providing a successful employment model and sustainable agriculture practice. Successful models don’t need $100,000 to sell vegetables.

How unsustainable are they? North Vancouver provided Edible Garden Project with free municipal park land to develop Loutet Farm. Downtown Vancouver’s farm and orchard land were leased to Sole Food at no cost, despite occupying prime real estate. In Vancouver, the catch is that either market conditions or rezoning and permitting restrictions mean the land owners face significant hurdles before large-scale development such as residences can begin construction. Letting a short-term urban farm occupy the space lets land owners avoid paying higher taxes.

Already, urban farms are costing residents tax revenue which goes toward things such as bike lanes and park maintenance. Don’t think that income from the farm’s yields will offset the lost revenue. While these farms produce hundreds of tons of produce per year, they are producing the cheapest and most plentiful items people already purchase from any grocery store.

If free land wasn’t enough, each development was given hundreds of thousands of dollars through city incentives and donor contributions to maintain operations. For example, Vancity provided a $70,000 grant to the Edible Farm Project, which operates with an annual budget of $250,000. Meanwhile, Radcliffe Foundations donated $475,000 to Sole Food, which operates with an even larger budget and pays more staff. Sole Food claims to “provide meaningful employment to 25 individuals” with dozens more volunteers, and Edible Garden Project employs just three full-time employees accompanied by dozens of volunteers.

Fruit and vegetables are already dirt-cheap, and are provided locally in season by professional farmers from the Fraser Valley and beyond. These projects should be recognized as social development projects, and encouraged for what they set out to accomplish. There’s nothing wrong with running a community service at a negative cost, but throwing around the word “sustainable” is just irresponsible.

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